Ideas Fund
We're part of an innovative UK-wide grant-making programme, connecting communities to researchers, and testing new ways of supporting mental wellbeing projects.
Launch of 'The Clarendon Way', by Yellow Wood. Photo Credit: Patrick Duddy Photography
Gary Rutherford, Arc Fitness. Photo Credit: Ideas Fund
"We feel that allowing recovery communities to actively shape research that addresses their needs, moving beyond being passive subjects, is a vital process."
Gary Rutherford, Arc Fitness
Meet the Evidence Building Grantees
ARC Fitness
ARC Fitness is an inspiring organisation based in Derry, that offers practical support for people struggling with addiction and promotes healthy and sustainable recoveries through exercise and positive lifestyle choices.
How it all started
The Ideas Fund is a grant-making programme of the British Science Association, funded by the Wellcome Trust, started in 2021 to test new ways of supporting communities working on ideas around mental wellbeing.
The Ideas Fund makes social place-based investments in chosen regions around the UK: Hull, Highlands and Islands, Oldham, and the North West of Northern Ireland.
Organisations working on ideas related to mental wellbeing are paired with researchers, usually drawn from local and regional universities, who work together for mutual benefit through innovation, knowledge exchange, and skills development.
The Ideas Fund innovates on new approaches to grant-making and funding relationships, with a particular emphasis on overlooked groups, such as rural communities, young people, or people from minoritised ethnic groups.
NWCN coordinator, Roisin McLaughlin, is the Development Coordinator for The Ideas Fund in the North West of Northern Ireland. This means NWCN provides guidance and support for all the grantee projects, and has a role in shaping this innovative UK-wide programme.
Our partnership with The Ideas Fund not only brings an innovative funding model to the North West, but helps to connect the North West to other regions across the UK. We regularly host Ideas Fund colleagues from all over the UK, and take pride in showcasing the best the North West has to offer.
Evidence Building Grants
The newest phase of the Ideas Fund is what we call 'Evidence Building Grants'. The aim of these grants is to capture evidence and share the impact of community-led collaboration with research on researchers and communities, with a particular interest in the impact on health research, and exploring what's made this impact happen.
In particular, the grants will:
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Support projects to continue making progress and extend their impact, with a focus on learning more about what's making that happen and linking this to the Impact Framework.
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Take a structured approach to the capturing and sharing of this learning, led by funded partnerships and projects with support from the British Science Association.
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Provide evidence which can be used to influence funders, policy makers etc. to adopt community-led approaches.
Launch of 'The Clarendon Way', by Yellow Wood. Photo Credit: Patrick Duddy Photography